Fast
by empire14
Summary: "And if we don't want to play with you?"... this was all so surreal, this wasn't happening. How could those three words have led to this!...  "Then Kai dies."  -eventually yaoi, you're warned.-
1. Unreal and unexpected always go together

Hello! Wel all you really need to know for now is that I will be updating this story every five to six days. It is mostly finished but advice is always welcome X)! And , I do not own Beyblade or any of it's characters. I do, however, own my own imagination and the idea for this story, YIPPIE!

Ahem...right, enjoy :)!

* * *

"RAY! Hurry up, we're gonna be late!"

Up in his room Ray rolled his eyes as he finished wrapping his hair. He then grabbed his shoes and put them on before leaving his room and taking the stair two at a time.

"Relax Tyson, I'm here."

Tyson huffed and flung Ray's jacket at him. "Well, it took you long enough. Now come on!"

Barely able to put on his jacket Ray was already being dragged out of the front door and towards the taxi that was waiting for them. Max and Kenny were already inside waiting for the other two impatiently.

As Ray and Tyson took a seat and the latter closed the door Max was already urging the driver to go. It was a surprise the taxi could hold all four of them, especially since Tyson and Max were as hyper as could be because they were _finally_ going to check out that new 'Robin Hood' movie. Kenny, on the other hand, was sulking because the others had forced him to leave his laptop back at the apartment. He was even in a worse mood when Tyson's and Max's hyperness got a little out of hand in one of the turns and they totally flattened Kenny against the side of the car squeezing a very girly squeal out of him that only made them laugh at him. Ray, trying very hard to contain his laughter pulled the two off of Kenny and than settled to silently chuckling to himself. He looked over at his three friends and felt that nothing could beat this. They had saved the world and had been friends for a little over four years. They were still beyblading but they now lived in the same apartment with the five of them.

Suddenly Ray's smile faltered a bit and he sighed. Yeah, the _five_ of them. Tyson, Max, Kenny, him and Kai. It had been a total and utter surprise when Kai had agreed to living in such close proximity to the other Bladebreakers. They had all been very excited about it. However, Kai was still a very hard guy to…well…talk to. Even though he had changed already, things like going to the movies or just going out with them in general was something he absolutely did not do. The others just gave him his space but, Ray couldn't help but feel a little down about the fact that Kai wasn't with them. He was part of the team and, even though Kai kept on denying it, he was their friend. He was the guy that was looking from the sidelines and who gave you the advice you really needed, he was the one who would never really let you down. Or at least that's how it had been after BEGA, luckily.

Staring at all the different cars shooting by Ray found himself thinking of the Phoenix yet again. He and Kai hadn't really been close or anything, but, seeing as Ray was the only one who wasn't either on a sugar high or stuck with his nose in a laptop all day, Kai usually took a liking to Ray when sharing rooms or on bus trips. That is, if he couldn't be all alone and really had to choose someone as his company. And somehow, Ray really liked the fact that Kai did that. Somehow, Ray just really liked Kai.

Ray's eyes widened at that particular thought and he quickly stopped it. He was not thinking such things about Kai, he was NOT!

But, stepping out of the taxi and following his friends inside, he just couldn't keep his thoughts off of Kai. And, aware or not, Ray's heart already knew exactly how Ray felt for his captain, and was getting a little impatient with Ray's stubborn and in denial brain.

…

"That. Was. So. COOL!" Tyson practically danced up the few steps up to their apartment door. He was closely followed by an ever-so-happy Max and a still grumbling Kenny. The last one was Ray who was still trying to stifle his laughing because Kenny kept on trying to give him mean looks that actually just made him seem constipated, hence Ray's laughter.

Barging through the front door, they were anything but quiet. Tyson kept on shouting that Kai would be so mad at himself when he found out what he had missed. Ray and Max just shared a look which basically said 'it's Kai's-going-to-kill-Tyson time again', while Kenny gave them both a look which said 'you two can clean it up this time' as he immediately ran to his room to go get his beloved Dizzy.

"Guys, you gonna come with, rub it in Kai's face!"

Max let himself fall onto the couch as he just gave Tyson a humoured look.

"Don't you think that him trying to strangle you once a week is enough Tyson?"

Tyson just puffed out his cheeks and his chest and was about to say something Ray was sure would have given them all a good laugh when a very high-pitched shriek came from upstairs.

Kenny.

All of their heads turned towards the doorway of the living room, which they were currently in, and not even a second later frantic footsteps came down the stairs and Kenny came flying around the corner looking as nuts as they come.

"_**DIZZY IS GONE!**_"

It was all Kenny said before he went into ramble mode as he started going over the entire room, flinging stuff into the air and nearly throwing Max off of the couch in order to check underneath the pillows.

"_**SHE'S NOT HERE EITHER!**_"

He immediately raced on to the kitchen and they all could hear cutlery and glasses being thrown about and felt like they should probably do something. Maybe they could order a straight jacket or dope Kenny up so bad he would calm down. But, before any of them even moved another shriek sounded, only this one sounded relieved.

"_**DIZZY!"**_

Going into the kitchen they found a disaster zone. Knives, spoons and forks were everywhere, plates were thrown onto a pile and at least half of them were broken and the entire kitchen floor was littered with glasses. And, in the midst of all this was Kenny, hugging his laptop to his chest and speaking soft reassuring words to it.

Ray, Tyson and Max could only stand there with their mouths wide open looking at what teeny tiny little Kenny had just done to their home in a matter of minutes. As soon as Kai would come down to check out the noise, they would all be so d-e-a-d.

But, as the seconds ticked by, nothing happened and Ray was the first one to come out of his fear induced frozen state. He carefully nudged the other two next to him into motion and slowly began to pick up some pieces of plate and knives.

"Come on guys, we better clean this up before Kai gets back. He probably went for a walk so we're lucky this time. Just do NOT do that again, ever."

That last sentence had been directed at Kenny who, for the first time since the whole screaming upstairs, actually took notice of the fact that there were three more people in the room. He opened his mouth to say something but immediately shut it and went bright red when he saw the devastation done to the kitchen and his three silently fuming friends looking down on him. He just silently picked himself and Dizzy up, tucked her under his arm and went to cleaning up the mess.

For an hour no one said anything, they just cleaned the living room and the kitchen with increasing speed. The fear for what Kai would do if he got home to this mess was fueling everyone's energy. Tyson had to smile bitterly at this. Even though Kai had already changed a lot, he still held a certain amount of danger in his aura that could even scare the ones he was living with and had known for four years.

After one hour had passed, things looked normal again. The cushions were back on the couch and the living room was tidied up. The kitchen floor was finally not a hazard zone anymore and all the unbroken plates and glasses were back in the cupboards, as was the cutlery. Aside from the two boxes full of broken plates in a closet in Max's room, nothing could be seen anymore that related to Kenny nearly destroying the entire house.

Speaking of which, the subject of the matter had silently sneaked back up his room and was now checking every inch of his laptop, all the documents on it and bombarding Dizzy with questions as to how she suddenly managed to move on her own and ended up in the kitchen.

The other three had crashed onto the coach, watching a TV-show of which nobody had a clue as to what it was called and they were all silently brooding on how to make this week personal hell for Kenny. After thinking of taking Dizzy, shutting Dizzy down, locking her up or hanging Kenny out of a window upside down and make him sing 'Hit Me Baby One More Time' Ray noticed that it was midnight already and decided that brooding could also be done in the comfort of one's bed and went upstairs…or at least tried to. Something speeding down knocked right into him and nearly sent him flying if it wasn't for the banister next to the staircase.

"What the… Kenny?"

And indeed, hanging onto Ray for balance was Kenny with Dizzy in his other hand. He quickly jumped back up and pulled on Ray's sleeve urging him to follow him.

"Ray come on, you need see this!"

"See what? I'm not in the mood Kenny, I'm going to sleep."

"But, I really, really think you should see this. It's important and I don't know what to do with it!"

Ray looked at Kenny and noticed that Kenny seriously looked on the verge of tears. Not feeling like dealing with a crying squirt he sighed and followed Kenny down the stairs again.

"Guys, guys, you need to see this!"

Tyson and Max visibly jumped as they were roughly pulled out of their 'how-do-we-make-Kenny-miserable-for-a-while' thoughts and had to focus on the little brown haired geek dragging an indifferent neko-jinn after him.

"I was going through my files to see if anything had been damaged or was missing and then I found this one file that I absolutely couldn't remember ever putting on there. So I opened it and my entire screen went black until it read this."

Kenny put Dizzy on the table standing in front of the couch so everyone could see the screen. On it was the following:

_Dear Tyson, Max, Ray and Kenny_

_I would like to play a game with you._

For a moment everyone was quiet as they merely stared at the screen. Then Ray sighed and slumped before standing up and stretching.

"You kept me from bed for that?"

He looked at Kenny with an irritated expression before turning towards the doorway, planning to go to bed for the second time this night.

And for the second time, it didn't play out the way he wanted it to. Max's voice rudely stopped him from making his exit.

"Uhm, Ray, you might really want to see this. And I mean really, really, really want to see this."

"Max, I'm gonna go to bed. I'm tired and you three are not helping my already screwed up mood."

"_Three? I feel left out Ray. All I wanted was to play with you. Don't you wanna play with me Ray?"_

All four boys froze immediately and went totally quiet, until a very scared voice piped up. Kenny.

"Uhm, R-Ray, You sh-should come o-over here…p-please?"

Slowly turning around, Ray saw all three of them staring at the computer screen with a certain amount of fear an disbelief. Although with Kenny, the fear was a lot more obvious. The text on the screen had changed, now it said.

_No Ray, I kept you up so we all could play._

Without remembering giving his legs any command, Ray walked back to the couch and sat back down again. It was then that he remembered that he had vocal chords and could do a little thing called 'talking'.

"Who the hell said that?"

Although his voice was a little shaky and soft, it was very well heard in the immensely quiet living room. The text on the screen changed yet again;

_I did._

None of them really knew why, but those two little words suddenly made the room's temperature drop below freezing and gave them the famous chill-going-down-my-spine moment.

"…And who are _you_..?"

Ray couldn't stop himself from asking. He was slightly alarmed when after a few seconds nothing had happened yet. But, he couldn't really understand why. Some stranger had somehow hacked into Dizzy and was now talking to them through her. So, what else was screwed up with this picture.

_I'm the game master._

…This was all seriously confusing. Max couldn't make heads or tails of it. The only thought going through his head was;…I think I speak for all of us when I say…huh? He looked to the side and, judging from his friends expressions, concluded that their thoughts were about the same. Coughing a little he felt stupid as he was about to ask a question to a computer, to something which apparently wasn't Dizzy.

"What exactly do you want…with us?"

He didn't really know why he had added that last part, but somehow it had just slipped out of his mouth. He also noticed that his voice was a little shaky…wait a minute…he wasn't scared, was he! But, now that he thought about it, that would explain where that extremely uneasy feeling and urge to walk out of the room came from.

_I just want to play Maxie._

_Do you want to play with me?_

Now it was Tyson who answered, and by the sound of his voice, he was thoroughly annoyed by being kept from doing nothing/sleeping.

"And if we don't want to _play with you_!"

Everybody held their breath, even though they themselves weren't even sure why. But just somehow they thought that that particular question would do something…anything to whoever the game master was supposed to be. And apparently, it did. But the outcome was different than what they had expected it to be. They actually got an answer, an answer that was clear and impossible to misinterpret, unlike all the answers they had received so far.

_Then__ Kai dies._

_

* * *

_

You guys know the drill, review and get a special thankyou!

xxx empire14


	2. Rules and Explanations

HEEEELLLOOOOOO! Thank you sooooo much for the reviews! And because you were all so nice to me, I've decided to update a little early! So, enjoy the next chapter of 'Fast'.

* * *

In a room that was designed as a cube, three meters by three meters by three meters, lay a boy. There was nothing else in the room. It's walls were made completely out of steel or some sort of metal, which made the entire surface of the room extremely smooth with no kinks in the wall, just the way its designer had wanted it to be.

The boy was an unusual looking seventeen-year-old. With his baggy jeans, black leather jacket, white/blue sneakers and, most of all, his blue toned hair, he was certainly someone you looked at twice. But as the boy slowly started to wake up from his slumber, you could see his most remarkable feature. His eyes.

They were bright red. Although right now they were a little clouded over from fatigue, but something tells us that that will not last long.

Two red eyes blinked wearily once or twice before remaining shut for a while and then suddenly snapping open while its owner immediately sat upright. Only, that hadn't been the brightest idea Kai ever had as he immediately had to close his eyes again and take a deep breath to get rid of the immediate dizziness that had swept over him by that one move.

After waiting a few seconds Kai slowly opened his eyes again and slowly got up to his feet. On the outside he looked at most a little startled, as startled as one would be when one would see a stray hair on ones spotless coat. But, on the inside, an entire tirade was forming. Kai was furiously scolding himself for getting stuck in an…unfortunate position such as this. He was supposed to be able to detect it if anything or anyone was creeping up on him and now someone just got passed his defenses, just like that!

Walking up to a wall, still internally grumbling, Kai put a hand against the wall and first knocked lightly, then a little harder, then he hit it with an enormous 'bang'. But, that only resulted in a throbbing hand and a wall that seemed about ready to start laughing at him.

As he took a couple of deep breaths to at least try and calm down, a voice suddenly sounded in the small confinement he was in.

"_Hello Kai. How nice of you to play victim."_

"Who the hell are you and why the fuck am I here!"

"_How rude of me, I'm the game master and I already told you why you're here, didn't I? Oh well, you're the victim."_

Kai actually had to think about that, but hey, could you blame him. What that guy had just said, it just didn't make any sense. And, quite frankly, Kai nearly had to laugh because of it. And in the end he did. Although it looked more like a smirk than anything, which suited him just fine.

"Me…victim? Yeah right, are you sure you've got all your wires connected up in that head of yours, 'cause I sure as hell ain't no victim. I bet I'll be out of here before you can try any of your psychological crap on me that your kind seems to love."

"_My kind? I don't know if I can quite follow you there Kai, but I can tell you that you can only get out, if the wizard, the two messengers and, for you most important, the seeker will do their part. It's actually quite simple. Well, your task is anyway."_

"Hn."

Kai tuned the voice out, or tried to, and stepped up to the wall again to see if he could find the door. He had to admit, this guy had hidden the exit quite well, but he'd find it. He always found it, it was just like back at the abbey. Only then a lot cleaner.

"_Don't you want to know how the game goes? Don't you want to know who's who?"_

"Just shut up for a change! I don't care about your stupid game, I care about getting out of here and after that, I care about kicking your crazy ass back to the planet you came from, **understood**!"

"_Tsk, tsk. Well, I tried to be friendly. I guess I'll just have to point out the obvious, yet again, by saying that you don't really have a choice in the matter. In any matter actually. So, for the last time, don't you want to know how the game goes?"_

Kai was getting seriously ticked off by this _game master_ character, but, some sensible part of his mind suddenly told him that these walls were made out of solid steel. And that any change of trying to break through that were somewhere near the minus 50. And so, reminding himself that this guy was the same as Tyson sometimes; irritating, he took a couple of deep breaths and tried to hold his anger in check.

"Fine, what's with you and this _game_?"

"_See, that's so much better. Now, I have already told you that you are the victim-_

Kai couldn't help but snort a little at this comment.

_-and that there are a wizard, two messengers and a seeker. The game goes as follows. The wizard will have to find the two messages hidden somewhere in the kingdom. Then the messengers will have to go and get them and decipher them before returning to the seeker. Only when he has received both of the answers of the messengers can he find out where the victim is hidden and go to the rescue, alone."_

Kai had the immense urge to laugh at this guy, and laugh hard, I mean what was he talking about. It sounded like some fairytale with a knight in shining armor going to the rescue of a damsel in distress. Kai shook his head and made a mental note to find out how much free time this guy had, 'cause from the look of things, he'd say waaaay to much.

But suddenly something cried for attention. This guy had said; 'don't you want to know who's who'. That meant there was more than one person in on this little joke, maybe the rest of the bladebreakers had put him up to this…that actually sounded like something…well…Kai sighed, like something none of them would do. They weren't always in tune with the rest of the world, but they weren't this idiotic or he'd have moved out months ago. But still, where there other people involved?

"You said 'don't you want to know who's who'? Mind telling me what the hell that meant!"

"_Well, since you've asked oh so kindly, I might think about it…. Oh well, here it goes. The wizard is your beloved geek Kenny with Dizzy as his want. The two messengers are the two energetic bundles of joy also known as Tyson and Max. And last but not least we have our seeker, the wild cat from China, Ray. Now that you know what's up and down, I'd say: Let's start playing!"_

"Playing WHAT! You said something about my task being easy, but you never even said what the hell you want from me!"

"_Oops, nearly forgot. Well you do have the easiest part. All you have to do is hope the others will make the time limit, well, that and swim. You can swim right?…Oh well. Don't cheat, play nice and have fun!"_

"Wait! What the hell do you mean _swim_?"

But, unfortunately, that question was answered without any words as suddenly a loud 'creak' could be heard followed by gushing sounds and the trickle of water. As Kai stood there, trying to wrap his head around…well…everything, water started to run down all four walls as if the walls had just turned into nice, calm waterfalls. The gush of water wasn't all that extreme and it came down in nice, nearly soundless sheets.

There was one problem, however, as Kai immediately figured out with panic rising in his chest. The water didn't seem like much, or even all that threatening, but it was. The amount of water coming down was still pretty impressive and already a small layer had appeared on the floor and it was rising, quite fast, too fast for Kai's liking. He stood there staring wide-eyed as the water slowly crept up his shoes and was nearly in contact with his ankle. If given enough time, this whole room was gonna fill up…with Kai stuck inside! Forget about swimming, what about growing gills in the next couple of hours, If Kai couldn't find a way out of here, and fast, that nut case was going to let him drown! And this was supposed to be a game? What the hell was _wrong_ with that guy!

Suddenly something made its way into Kai's overactive/half tripping mind. The guys, Kenny, Max, Tyson and Ray. They were supposed to figure out where he was and…and…_rescue him_? Kai felt like screaming, his heart rate had already doubled and the water had reached his ankles still slowly rising, as if trying to swallow him or something. And maybe it was.

Kai's breathing sped up and he panicked, looking at all the walls and suddenly seeing a small dark line in the form of a door on one of them. He quickly splashed through the room and started feeling the wall, trying to figure out if this thing even had any weak spots.

The answer to that was of course; no. But that only managed to fuel the fear rising in Kai's chest.

.

.

.

Whoa, hold up. _Fear_?

But as Kai stood there contemplating his last thought, he actually had to admit to himself as he glanced back at the room slowly filling with water, that he actually felt _afraid_. He didn't want to be here, he didn't want to feel so utterly helpless. He had to get out, he had to get away from here, from that guy. He…he didn't want to die.

He immediately turned back to the door and started hitting it with his fists and, to even his own surprise, he started shouting, trying to make as much noise as possible.

I mean, what else could he do.

_(scene change)_

Four blank faces stared unbelieving at the computer screen placed in front of them. Those three little words were still on it. Those three little annoying words that all of them understood but none of them could really comprehend. They knew what the words meant separately, but they just couldn't seem to wrap their heads around the fact that these words could form an actual sentence.

"Y-your lying. Kai's upstairs…your lying!"

_You think I would lie to you Ray? I feel hurt. But, I do get your reasoning. Mhmm, I guess I could show him to you. Will you play with me if I show you, will you Ray?_

"You're crazy. I don't know who you are but you're bloody crazy! If you think you can scare us then you're wrong, you're just some idiotic fan, so shut up and leave us alone or I'm calling the police!"

Ray had stood up somewhere during his rant and suddenly thought he looked rather silly shouting at someone he couldn't even see and be so mad with that person. He had, however, meant what he had said and strode over to the phone, determined to get rid of this nut once and for all.

The problem was, as soon as he had picked up the receiver, dialed the number and put it to his ear, all he heard was a long beeeeeeeeeep.

The phone line had been disconnected.

_Now Ray, that wasn't a very nice thing to say, I only want to play a little game. Kai has already agreed to play, I thought he was your 'leader' or something. Shouldn't you want to play too?_

Ray had slowly turned around with a bit of a frightened/ticked off look on his face while putting the phone down. He was now staring at the screen as if that was the game master's face. And in a way it was, that game master character was using Dizzy to talk and to write when he didn't feel like talking. Thoughts were absolutely racing through Ray's mind. Whenever he had thought of something it immediately slipped away and was replaced by something else only to repeat that process over and over and over again. Things were just so weird and strange and messed up and…and…and so god damn hard to understand!

_Hey, here's an idea. Why don't I let you talk to Kai for a minute. He'll explain the rules to you, since you won't listen to me it seems, and then you can start too. 'cause you know, you're falling behind. Kai has already started playing…hihihihihiiihihihi_

His laugh completely freaked the four of them out, it was like nails on a chalk board only then with an insane tinge attached to it. In other words, it sounded awful and all four had to resist the urge to cover their ears and sing real loud to make the voice go away.

Luckily, it stopped on its own and for a few seconds only static could be heard as the screen was filled with snow.

Suddenly an image was shown. An image of a room. A room with a layer of water in it.

A room which held a panicked boy.

A panicked seventeen-year-old boy with blue hair and red eyes.

…Kai.

Ray's mind was somehow eerily quiet when he saw Kai. It was like he was seeing it, but not really able to process it because the image didn't make sense. No, scratch that, it was utterly and totally impossible, and if it wasn't possible then it couldn't be real.

But then, why was he seeing it?

Ray ever so slowly made his way back to the couch and sat down very carefully, eyes still staring incredulously at the screen. Kai's voice filled the immensely quiet room and they all noticed he was shouting for help…wait…Kai…THE Kai was openly admitting a weakness and _shouting_ for _help_?

Did the world burn down and re-grow or where they just stuck in a parallel universe?

Kenny was the first one to voice/sum up al of their thoughts.

"…That's not possible…that is just not possible…"

As if a switch had been flipped, Kai stopped shouting from one minute to the next and immediately whipped around looking at the room before him before shouting at that same empty room.

_"__Who the HELL are you and what the FUCK do you want from me_!"

Tyson was the next to voice his thoughts. His face suddenly unhealthily pale.

"Oh my god it is him…Wait, can he hear us?"

"_Yes I can hea-!…Tyson?__"_

"Kai!...where…how…how did you…when…uhm…if this is a joke than it's NOT funny!"

Tyson looked mad but his voice sounded near pleading. He actually wanted Kai to smirk and call them a bunch of brainless monkeys for thinking that he could be locked up against his own will so easily. He wanted that to happen so badly that the next words made him feel like he was choking.

"_Hihi, it's not a joke Tyson. Of course it's not. This is a game, and we've already begun. But, you all still seem a little dazed. Maybe I should give you a little heads-up on the situation. I was going to wait with this bit of information as to not scare you yet. But, it is apparently needed to get the game going. You have until tomorrow noon to find the two clues as to where the victim is and save him. The two messengers will collect these clues and bring them back to the seeker. He will then, __**on his own**__, go to rescue the victim. No one else may know of the game and all the players must complete their own task __**without**__ any help from the outside or other players in the order I have just explained, a disruption of the order will be punished. But, there is a catch. If you do not succeed in doing all aforementioned things before noon tomorrow, the room the victim is in will have filled up with water and that player is game over, a.k.a. dead. Have fun, and play fair! Oh, and here's your first clue my players, in mathematics, letters can be used as any number. But I don't like math, and in the alphabet, every letter has it's own place._

Everything and everyone was quiet. Not even any outside noise dared to make its way into the ears of the four boys sitting frozen with their mouths wide open on the living room couch. All of their eyes were fixed on a computer screen that showed a room, slowly filling with water, occupied by another boy with blue hair.

"…Holy fuck…holy mother of fucking hell, _that room __is filling __**with water**_!"

Everything had been quiet until Max's voice roughly shook everyone awake by repeating what everyone had already heard and what had scared them so much.

Max, Tyson, Ray and Kenny suddenly started shouting at the same time making it impossible to understand anything they were saying. They were all trying to talk loudest, trying to make sense of the situation and to find an answer…until…

"_EVERYBODY __**SHUT IT!**__"_

Four mouths snapped shut in synchronization and all heads were, once again, turned to the screen. Kai looked royally pissed off and nobody blamed him.

"_Will you all just get your act together and stop freaking, rambling aimlessly is not going to help! Now listen up. Kenny, you need to find those clues, start with that. Max, Tyson, you two need to get them to Ray and then he has to come find me. You can do that..alright? Just think of it as an opponent's strategy. You'll only figure it out while playing."_

Four shaky yet sort of determined nods were sent the computer screen's way…only to see the image flicker and the screen turn black.

"No KAI!"

Ray grabbed a hold of the laptop and shook it, as if hoping that that would bring Kai back. He just needed to know Kai would be okay, he had looked so scared when they had first seen him. Why was he gone?

Suddenly two hands, small hands, were placed on top of Ray's shaking ones. Looking up Ray found Kenny staring at him.

"I'm gonna need Dizzy…. We'll find him Ray, we just gotta work together…and not freak out."

That last was said with just a hint of a smile but Ray could see the sadness in Kenny's eyes. He numbly shook his head and gave the laptop to Kenny who immediately started typing.

_(scene change)_

"Will you all just get your act together and stop freaking, rambling aimlessly is not going to help! Now listen up. Kenny, you need to find those clues, start with that. Max, Tyson, you two need to get them to Ray and then he has to come find me. You can do that..alright? Just think of it as an opponent's strategy. You'll only figure it out while playing."

They had stopped shouting to listen to Kai and he seriously hoped that had done the trick of pulling them back down to earth as that was what they sometimes also needed right before an important beyblade-match.

Just as Kai wanted to ask them something static could be heard…Shit.

"Hey! You still there?"

"_Yes, of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?"_

Kai felt enraged again, but decided against letting it show. He had already disgraced himself enough. But, as he looked at the water that was now halfway up his lower leg, the fear made itself known again. He took a few deep breaths and tried to calm down. Losing his head in this was not going to help.

But then, as he thought about the fact that he was totally and utterly stuck and helpless, he had to (unwillingly) admit that his life was now seriously in the hands of his four crazy fri- teammates damnit, teammates!

He looked back at the ceiling so that he at least didn't have to look at the water anymore, it helped with controlling his fear.

He suddenly remembered why he went out that night. He had been bored without the other four running around and had decided that taking a walk might help. He had ended up at the beach, the slow rushing of the sea always seemed to sooth him. It was quite ironic how the sound of water back there had been welcoming and right now it was making him feel helpless and (even though he cursed himself for it) afraid.

He closed his eyes as he brought his head back down, his neck was starting to hurt a little. He proceeded to breath in and out slowly, to make sure he wouldn't freak…again.

'Shit guys, help me out here.'

* * *

Sooo? What did you think? Please let me know, thank you!

xxx empire14


	3. The clock starts ticking

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand, here we are, chapter 3. But before we start, I would like to thank everyone who was reviewed so far, hearing from my readers always makes my day a happy one! And now, R&R please!

* * *

Kenny had been typing away at his laptop for _seven freaking __**hours**_! The other three occupants in the room were about ready to go mental and pull their hair out. But they managed to just ask a question, sort of.

"How much fucking longer!"

"Tyson, there's no reason to snap at Kenny like that. He's doing all he can, he didn't even know what he was looking for in the first place. We're all on edge, fighting won't help."

"Max's right. I wanna break something as well, but now's not the time for it."

During this little exchange Kenny had never even giving a clue that he had heard any of it. And to tell the truth, he hadn't. He was so engrossed in his searching that he completely shut out everything else. Max had been right, He hadn't had the foggiest as to what he was looking for. He had therefore started with trying to trace the signal that Dizzy had recorded during their 'conversation' with this game master person. Problem was, that had taking way more time than necessary and he had been hacking for more than one and a half hour only to get stuck at one of the last codes, For the life of him, he just hadn't been able to find the right code to enter.

He had, therefore, been forced to give up and had thought of checking his entire laptop, more excessively this time, for unknown files, seeing he had stopped last time when he had triggered that whole 'conversation' stuff.

He had a program run a check on his entire laptop and had set it to find any files that had been added after six a.m. yesterday. Because if something had, it wasn't something of his since he had been at the cinemas during that time. This also took about and hour, and just when he was about to give up, something popped up.

It had been nothing out of the ordinary, a file named 'Tyson's progress 26-01-10' that wouldn't have been suspicious at all considering the fact half of his laptop was stashed with files on the BladeBreaker's progress. And even more so since Kenny had indeed recorded some stats concerning Tyson's Beyblading tod-, uhm…yesterday.

There was, however, one problem he wouldn't have seen when casually checking his files. This particular one had been modified at 19:37, right when Kenny had been sitting in a cinema watching 'the lord of all movies', or at least that's what Tyson named it anyway. Therefore, Kenny's interest was immediately peaked. He debated with himself for all but two seconds before he clicked the file…and was thoroughly confused.

The screen had gone blank again and it now showed four letters in bold and a text underneath with a timer in the corner going down from 30 seconds:

**HACK**

Try and trace me now…

.

.

It had all been utterly confusing.

After 30 seconds the screen had gone back to normal and the file was gone, not that he wanted to look for it anyways, it hadn't been very hard to learn by heart.

Kenny had thought about it for a few minutes before he had started all over again with trying to trace the signal, and again, after nearly two hours of searching and hacking and whatnot, he had stranded yet again.

There was something though, his program couldn't crack the password, it just said that I needed 5 symbols/letters/numbers. It was highly frustrating, I mean, the whole HACK notion didn't make any sense. I had already been hacking, and…well…AARGH! This was so damn frustrating, Kai could drown and we're just stuck here as somehow that guy can see/hear our every move, like with Ray and the phone. For a split second Kenny felt like throwing a tantrum and crying. He just wasn't made for pressure like this, and his ever fidgeting teammates weren't calming him much either.

Then, totally out of the blue, he remembered something that master-guy had said right after he had given them the frightening news of Kai's current predicament.

…_here's your first clue wizard, in mathematics, letters can be used as any number. But I don't like math, and in the alphabet, every letter has it's own place…_

The entire statement had sounded ridiculous, but now…. Kenny's mind was working at to speed and suddenly something clicked. His epiphany put an enormous smile onto his face as he prayed with his entire being that he was right and that this way he would find…_something!_

If he applied that nut's theory, than those four letters, HACK, resembled numbers. Numbers which were connected to their place in the alphabet, and that added up perfectly.

The H was number 8, the A was 1, the C was 3 and the K was 11.

And those made a number consisting out of five numbers, the code for the last stage of tracing something! Please, let this work. Please, please, please let this work!

Kenny looked at his keyboard for a few seconds before he typed in the number: 81311

He crossed his fingers…

'Access Denied'

That was what flashed on the screen before it went back to asking a five letter code. If Kenny would have been standing in front of a wall at that moment he would have bashed his head against it. His sudden epiphany induced state had made place for a depressed mood that felt like it would drag him under. He let out a shaky breath as he stared at the blinking cursor on his screen.

He was never gonna be able to do this. He felt so close to crying that he had already lowered his head incase his friends would see the tears roll down his face. He didn't want them to see. He shut his eyes tightly as he remembered the sight of Kai frantically trying to get out of the room that was slowly filling with water as we speak. He remembered the frantic and nearly _scared_ look in his captain's eyes. The still demanding tone when he managed to quiet them all down and talk some sense into them even though he was the one in mortal danger.

A small smile made it's way to Kenny's face as he thought about the blue-haired blader. Kai had become nearly _protective_ of them, the four of them. And the silent company Kai provided every now and then, it wasn't scary any more, it was reassuring. The fact was, Kai had really grown on all of the BladeBreakers. And even though Kai himself denied it profusely, they were all pretty sure that the BladeBreakers had also grown on Kai.

Remembering his fearless captain Kenny had a new determination flow through him. He was not going to screw this up. Kai was out there and he needed them, he was going to do this, he was going to figure this out damnit!

He focused on the screen again with his fingers hovering above the key board trying to think of any other clues this guy may have given throughout all of his 'conversation time'. Maybe he should put them in a different order…

…_must complete their own task __**without**__ any help from the outside or other players in the order I have just explained, a disruption of the order will be punished…_

Kenny had no idea where that had come from but it did help him, This guy had been so strict about the order of the game, and he had said he didn't like math. So, he didn't like numbers, but he did like order. Then maybe…YES!

Kenny immediately typed in a different yet the same code. It consisted of the same numbers, only now in a different order. The order of the alphabet since he had spoken about every letter having a specific place in the alphabet, this could very well work if this guy was really so set on order!

13811

Pray, pray, pray!

.

.

.

'Access Granted'

"**YES!**"

The other three occupants in the room nearly jumped of onto the ceiling when Kenny let out a yell of…satisfaction.

Within seconds all three of them were crowding around the laptop on Kenny's lap.

"Did you get it! What did you get, did you find him, that guy…something!"

"Yes, yes, yes! I did it, I found something!"

"That's great Kenny, but WHAT DID YOU FIND!"

Everybody was a little blown away at Ray's immediate loose of cool. Although they could hardly blame him, Kenny, on the other hand, didn't even seemed to notice.

On his screen, there was a map showing the town centre, one dot somewhere right in the middle indicated an old warehouse, and another dot, on the outskirts of the centre, indicated a church. Then there was another dot, it was on the far right on the screen, indicating their current location, which was about the same distance from the church and the warehouse.

Kenny took a good look at everything, and suddenly found himself beaming.

"Hey guys, I think I found the clues Tyson and Max have to solve! I did it, I finally did it, WOOHOO!"

Kenny had never been this happy before, he felt like hugging all of them, but more pressing matters called for attention. He quickly put the two addresses into a normal Word-file for safekeeping. He then sunk back into the couch; they could do this, they could find Kai, they would damnit!

"Uhm…how do you know that those are the right ones?"

Aaaaaand of course, Tyson had to go and burst his little bubble of happiness. But, he did have a point, how could Kenny be so sure that he wasn't wrong?

He quickly looked back at his laptop screen and nearly fainted when he saw it had turned black again. NOOOOOOO!

"What the hell does _that_ mean? 'Level 2', Kenny you weren't playing a…a _game __right!_"

Ray sounded absolutely murderous at the end and Kenny actually felt kind of, pretty much intimidated. But he quickly raised his hands and let a string of no's leave his mouth, hoping Ray wouldn't break his neck, he somehow seemed quite eager to do that…for all but three seconds after which he all but collapsed back onto the couch with a more than tired expression on his face.

Actually, they all kind of looked like that. The worrying and waiting had already taken their toll on all four of them as they looked sickly pale. But, this one minute of self-reflection was rudely interrupted as _two_ cell phones went off _simultaneously__!_

Max and Tyson both jumped as they fumbled with their pockets and finally got a hold on their phones. They answered in unison.

"Hello."

And then, again, they said the same thing.

"Who is this?"

After one second both Max's and Tyson's eyes grew exceptionally large before two enraged expressions made their way to their faces and Kenny found himself nearly pitying the cell phones in their hands that were slowly being squashed as both hands suddenly found themselves with white knuckles.

After those eerie few seconds, the spell was broken and they did separate things. Tyson let out a soft growl while his eyes flashed and Max said in a low yet slightly shaking voice.

"What do _you _want _now_."

Suddenly Max took the phone away from his ear, as did Tyson, and they both pushed the speaker button. Whoever it was also wanted to talk to Kenny and Ray.

"_Good job wizard, good job. You have successfully gotten your team to the next level. Now it is the messengers' time, go pick up and solve the clues that your wise wizard has found, and uh, it is forbidden at all times to use any other way of transportation than your own two legs. Hurry up now, the clock is ticking hihiihiihi…Oh, and boys. Your cell phones will be connected with me at all times, don't try hanging up, it won't work. I will be able to hear everything, and if I suspect you are getting outsiders involved…well, let's just say that room could be full in less than five minutes, hiihihiihhiiihihi."_

_._

_._

_._

"_Take the speaker off…now."_

Max and Tyson slowly pushed the speaker buttons again and than proceeded to stare at each other with wide eyes.

This guy was nuts! He wanted him and Max to go wherever to pick up and solve some clues before coming back here to hand them to Ray. And all that had to be done before noon and they could only _walk_! For the first time Tyson felt like they were seriously in over their heads. I mean, in beybattles he had always been optimistic but right now, he was finding that just a little bit difficult. How the heck were they going to cross nearly the entire town from and to here and be able to give Ray the time he needed to actually get Kai! HOW?

Tyson looked at Max and Max looked at him. Tyson could see that Max was having the same inner battle he was, and that they were both loosing to the negative side.

Max opened his mouth a little and suddenly whispered, it was very small and quiet but they all heard it, problem was, they just didn't know how to answer it.

"…how…"

…

Tyson stared straight into Max's eyes. They just looked so lost, a bit how he felt actually. He then looked at Ray who had his head in his hands while blank eyes stared at the floor, and Kenny who had his eyes hidden behind his hair (as usual), but whose entire posture looked utterly helpless.

They all needed a miracle, or more specifically, Kai. Even Tyson admitted that he was starting to feel sick with worry for his captain…his…friend!

Suddenly there was a fire in Tyson, it started out small, but slowly it got bigger. And with everything he remembered about Kai it kept on growing, all the hard times, the walking off, the switching teams, but especially all the good times, the small switch of his lips at his friends antics, the agreeing to live with them, the advice he never failed to give any of them to help them get better. And suddenly, the fight against Brooklyn came to mind. Kai had already been beaten up, his energy levels had been way below those of Brooklyn, yet he had still fought him, passing his own physical limits by miles. He had won that battle for them, and now they were going to win this _game_ for him.

Hang on Kai, we're coming!

Tyson looked at the miserable image of his team one more time before he decided to speak up, this moping was going to end…now!

"I'll tell you how!"

That certainly grabbed the attention of the other three as they were now looking up at Tyson with both awed, frightened and shocked expressions. Good, now he had their attention.

"Kai, our _friend_, is out there in the hands of some sicko with a twisted sense of humor. We're the only ones who know that, and what are we doing…we're moping around! We just keep on thinking about how hard this is going to be, how we might screw things up. Well, here's some food for thought! Can you think of one person who always kept going, no matter how hard things were going to be. One person who screwed up multiple times, got knocked down, and who managed, every single time, to stand back up again. Can you think of one person who used to think of us as enemies and now sees us as something close to friends!...I can. That one person is named Kai! He's our friend, and I don't know about you guys, but nobody ever messes with my friends. Not the ones that mean the world to me, not the ones that would, long ago, have already gotten off of their asses and out there to look for me if I had been in trouble! Now, you wanted to know how? How about standing back up again and showing that psycho that we **won't** mess up when our friend is one the line!"

Breathing heavily, Tyson stood in the middle of the room. Glaring at all three of them and nodding, satisfied, when he encountered three fiery looks from his friends. They were going to get Kai back, and then that guy had better start running 'cause they were coming for him. You don't mess with the BladeBreakers, many had learned that the hard way, and this guy seemed in need of a lesson.

Tyson turned to Kenny and held out his hand for the addresses. Kenny got the hint and quickly scribbled them down on two pieces of paper before handing if to Tyson. Locking eyes with Max they both smiled and then put a determined look on their face. Without looking, Tyson gave Max on of the two addresses and turned around to grab his jacket. Max did the same and followed him out the front door. Neither boy said something as they stalked down the street. They looked down at their 'personal address', looked at each other, nodded…and ran. They split up at the end of the street, flashed each other the thumbs up sign and took off into the night. Both with only one thought going through their mind.

'Hold on Kai. We're coming.'

* * *

Oh MAN! I am so BAD at inspiring speeches, hell. It was an absolute pain to write and it probably wasn't even all that good and I am very, very sorry about that fact. But please, let me know what you think and if you have any advice, I will welcome it with open arms!

xxx empire14


	4. RUN!

Okay, you guys now what to do...right? ...*sighs* alright, I'll explain one more time(!)

.

.

.

PLEASE R&R!

* * *

The water was building up…fast…too fast…too damn _fucking __**fast**_!

Kai closed his eyes again and continued breathing in and out slowly and controlled. He had been counting his breaths and had come to 4500 before he got so sick of it he just had to open his eyes. And only when he had opened them did he remember why he had closed them in the first place and had tried so hard to forget everything else but his own breathing, which I may add was going a little too fast right now. Just like the rising water level, too fast, too goddamn fast!

NO! Don't think about it, just don't think about it. It's not there, it's not there, it's not there, it's **not** there, **It's not there**!

.

.

.

AAAAAAAAARRGHH! Damn, he knew it was there, Kai could feel the water slowly travelling up his mid-section. The slow soaking of his clothes was a constant reminder of the, possibly lethal situation he was in. He needed a distraction. He needed one, fast.

Suddenly he wondered something. A subject other than his possible death entered his mind and he grabbed at the opportunity to forget about it.

The guys.

He had no idea as to why he even called them that as they were just his teammates. Kai opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling. Why did he call them that? Maybe becau-

"_Ka-ai…I have some news for you."_

How he **hated** that stupid, idiotic, childish sing-song voice that crazy maniac appeared to have. It reminded him a little too much of Boris, and the way he'd speak to him while 'preparing' him for his punishment. Here Kai involuntarily shuddered, he absolutely _loathed_ that tone . . . mostly because he was afraid of what would happen after he heard it, but there was no way in hell he'd ever tell people most of his anger was fueled by fear.

_"It seems the wizard found the clues. The messengers are retrieving them as we speak. And, who knows, maybe they will be able to save you…but then again, maybe not. I wouldn't put too much faith in them Kai, you might get hurt in the end, hhiihihihi. What good friends will they be when they can't even help you out, mm. You might want to think about that. I mean, hihi, look at them. Running all over the place, talking big, while they're not even doing all they can."_

Kai had been silent during the entire speech, mostly because he had had no idea on what to say, but that last comment made something snap. He just couldn't stay silent any longer, why…God knows.

"You're wrong! They **always** give it everything they've got, they never hold back. I know them you asshole, you don't! They always do everything they can to win, **always** … do you hear me!"

"_No need to shout Kai, I can hear you perfectly fine. And yes, they do always go all out…in a bey-battle. But, my dearest Kai, this isn't a bey-battle. This is a game of…of hide-and-seek. And in this game, the stakes are a bit higher than in any other hide-and-seek game. Which is exactly what is scaring them, what is holding them back. I mean, what if they themselves get hurt, do you really think they'll risk something like that just for you? Mhh, I don't think so Kai, I mean, would you…no. You're Kai Hiwatari, scared of no one and frightening to all. You're a loner, and you've never even really acknowledged their existence. You're not their friend, you've said that yourself. Now why Kai, why would they risk their own safety for a mean grouch. You know them, you said that, but I know them too. And I know that they could do all of this so much faster, you know that too. The only reason they're even doing something is just to be able to say afterwards that they really did try _everything_ they could to save their captain but in the end. . . they were just too late."_

. . .n-no. . . that couldn't be true. .could it?. . . . . NO! This guy was just trying to get into my head. It all wasn't true, they were just lies! Just stupid, idiotic, meaningless…and true.

.

.

Shit

.

.

Suddenly Kai's breathing was waaay too fast. He slowly walked back until his back hit a wall and he had something solid to hold onto. He felt a little dizzy and gladly used the wall to lean against so that he wouldn't fall over. He couldn't care less about the water running over the wall that was now completely soaking him. His breathing was still fast and his eyes were wide as he couldn't find a false word in the entire speech that guy had just given him. He _was_ a mean grouch towards the rest of the Bladebreakers. And he _did_ always deny the fact that the others were his friends. He had never shown, not once, that he actually cared for the rest of the guys. And suddenly he remembered the part of the speech where that guy had said that he wouldn't risk anything for the others, for Max, Tyson, Kenny or…or _Ray_.

And no matter how painful the truth was, that was the one part that was a lie. He understood that now. If any of those four would be in trouble, he would help them. He'd risk his own safety if that meant keeping his friends safe.

"…You're wrong…"

His voice sounded so weak and soft, but he couldn't help it. The reality just crashed down on him. The others would probably be too late…and it was all his own fault. He had never told them how much it all meant to him. …How much _they_ meant to him. But that would end now. He would probably never get the change to say this to them, but he wouldn't let this…this _freak_ say that he didn't care, especially when he was talking about Max, Tyson, Kenny and Ray…his _friends_.

"You're wrong! I would risk something like that if it meant helping them, I would risk everything to keep them safe! And they **are** my friends, they're the ones that accept me even though I'm a mean grouch, as you put it. And if they would be in trouble than I would help them, no matter the risks! Don't talk about things you know nothing about because _you're __**wrong**_!"

Kai had quite literally screamed that last part and was now leaning on the wall staring at the still rising water. His friend's faces kept on returning in his memories and a wry smile made its way to his face.

"_That might be true Kai, but they don't know that…hihiiihihihhiihihihihi."_

Kai had already known that, but hearing it being said out loud with _joy_ made him want to break something…or someone. But surprisingly he didn't. For the first time since he could remember he didn't start ranting and raving. He could still see the faces of his four friends, but now they did something to him. They made him feel something which he hadn't felt in quite some time. They made him feel. . ._sad_.

And then, Kai did something very unKai-like. While the water made its way up to his chest he hung his head and cried. Tears slowly trickled down his face and met the water below with soft 'plinks'. And all the while he kept on thinking one thing.

'I'm sorry guys, I'm so, so sorry.'

(scene change)

For the first time Max was glad Kai had pushed them all of those days into running. He had been doing just that for the last hour or so with a few stops to get his breath back but he was pretty tired, not to say downright exhausted. He sluggishly turned another corner and finally saw the warehouse he was supposed to go to. He felt like dropping to his knees and cry out of pure joy put stopped himself seeing as there were way more pressing matters to attend to right now. Like getting some clue back to Ray in order to save Kai.

This thought had been fueling his energy for the last couple of hours, that and the fact that he kept on seeing that image of Kai, completely freaking out, in a room slowly filling with water. He held his sides to try and get his breath back as his vision was swimming a little and his legs and lungs were burning. He fixed his gaze on the building in front of him and shakily started walking towards it. When he reached one of the doors on the ground floor he tried to take a deep breath (it didn't really work seeing as his breaths were still coming in quick gasps and they didn't seem to be slowing down even a bit) and leaned against it to…WOW!...ow, fall in apparently.

Pushing himself up to all fours Max looked behind him and saw that the door had indeed opened up when he had leaned against it, considering it was now slowly swinging in its hinges. Max shook his head a little trying to focus on finding his clue. How, he didn't really know. He just knew that he had to, he owed it to Kai. Kai had saved/helped them many times already and had never backed down because something looked difficult. He would do this and they would find their friend, damnit!

He got up, dusted his pants of a little and found that the room he was in was completely empty. Right, nothing to be found in here. Max cautiously stepped forward, trying to stay silent but not really succeeding seeing as his breathing completely betrayed him as he was still breathing pretty heavily. But he still crept towards the next door and opened it only to find an exact replica of the room he was just in. The next two doors revealed the same over and over again until, after opening the fifth door, he was standing outside again, a bit ticked off and highly confused. All the rooms he had been in had only had two doors, the one he used to come into the room and the other he used to get out of the room again, into another room, repeating the process until it had lead him outside. He had a feeling that that wasn't what was supposed to happen. He walked around the entire building only to find two more doors, correction, used-to-be-doors. They were made out of steel that looked rusty and had old yet still pretty solid wooden planks blocking them, indicating they weren't really being used anymore.

Max eventually came back to one of the doors that he had used earlier and went back in again. He came to the room he had visited last last time and decided to see if the walls had any cracks or hidden doors seeing as it was pretty dark inside and therefore a little hard to precisely see what was inside. Max used his phone as a flashlight, investigating the walls but not finding anything, or so he thought. When he was about to leave, his phone illuminated the door he had intended to open and revealed a number. It had been carved straight into the wood and Max could see that it had been done quite recently. Thinking this might mean something he immediately started fumbling in his pockets and finally found the cinema ticket and a stray pencil to write with. He wrote down the number 19 and walked into the next room.

He repeated the checking of the walls and, again, he came up empty. Getting a little suspicious and a little exited, he checked the door again, this one had the number 20 carved into it. The next room he went into he just immediately looked at the door and saw the number 21.

19, 20, 21. It could just be an old numbering system…but then why were these numbers carved into the wood…things just didn't add up and Max decided to just go with it, for now. The clock was ticking and so far, nothing else looked like a possible clue. Although he had no idea whatsoever how numbers were going to help, it was al he had right now.

Therefore he walked through door number four and saw that the number on the last door didn't add up. This door had the number 25 on it. The idea of the numbering system immediately left Max's head and adrenaline suddenly coursed through his system. This could be it, he could have figured it out. He walked through door number five and was out in the open again, his mind fixed on those four numbers, 19, 20, 21 and 25. What were they supposed to mean?

All of a sudden, a thought entered his head. If all the doors had had a number on it, could it be that he had missed the number on the first door he had just walked through?

Immediately turning around Max wanted to open the door with the number 25 again, only to see that the door also had a number on this side. But now it had the number 1. Max got exited, what if all the doors had _2 different_ numbers on them. He'd figure out what it meant later, now he was just extremely euphoric that he had finally found some sort of lead.

The following numbers were 2, 4 and 5. The last door held the numbers 9 and 13. Max had written down the numbers that were on the same door next to each other. He also noticed that, when walking from this side and then back again from the other side, the numbers went from small numbers to bigger numbers. In other words, there was some sort of order in it. His paper now looked like this:

1-13 2-19 4-20 5-21 9-25

Max was now outside again and was looking at his paper with proud. But suddenly, the happy balloon that had inflated his chest, deflated, fast. As he was standing there looking at the numbers on his paper, he felt even more confused than before. How the hell was this gonna help…maybe he had been wrong, maybe these numbers wasn't what he was looking for. Maybe he had to break down the doors that were completely shut off.

"…I mean, how are 10 numbers going to help me."

Max had said that last part out loud without noticing he did so. But, someone else did.

"_Ooh, Maxie, this is so exiting isn't it, e and you're all being worried while your friend is hidden right under your very noses. But, you've found my clue. Now let's see if you can decipher it, remember what I said 'in mathematics, letters can be used as any number. But I don't like math, and in the alphabet, every letter has its own place.' Good luck Maxie, hihiiihihihi"_

…What. The. Hell.

If Max hadn't gotten it before, he sure as hell wasn't getting it now. For crying out loud, what the hell was that supposed to mean? He looked down at the paper in his hand and suddenly felt extremely tired, what was he going to do!

(scene change)

'BANG'

The church's door opened without any grace and revealed the person who had opened it.

Tyson. Was. Tired.

There was nothing more to it. He had just giving the damn door a push and had hoped it would do the trick. He was sooooo sick of this guys game. He just wanted to get that damned clue, get it to Ray and find his friend. Why did this guy had to pick Kai. Why him, what had he done to get this game master character this pissed?

During his mental rant Tyson had walked up the aisle of the church and he was now standing in front of the alter. The building looked old and everything inside was covered in a fine layer of dust. The benches were covered in white sheets and the alter was empty except for a cross with a golden Jesus hanging on it. All in all the thing had been abandoned for already quite some time, but it still looked impressive.

The only problem now was, where did that guy put this stupid clue. Tyson really didn't look forward to searching this entire thing, not because he didn't want to, he'd search the whole goddamn planet to save his friends. The more pressing matter was that he just couldn't waste any time, or actually he could, but Kai…

Tyson shook his head, he was going to stay positive because they were going to do this!

He took another look at the church and decided to start with the alter, it seemed like a good hiding place.

.

.

.

After fifteen minutes of searching Tyson still came up empty and he was starting to feel a little restless, his searching got sloppier and he started rushing. To him it seemed as if he had been searching for at least an hour, he just didn't have that much time.

After another few minutes of fruitless looking Tyson let out a frustrated shout and, in his frustration, knocked the cross off of the alter. Tyson looked at it and expected it to land on the floor with a huge 'clang' that would echo in the entire church, indicating his failure.

What he didn't expect, was that it would hit the floor…and shatter into a million pieces. Since when does gold shatter? It doesn't, so that thing wasn't gold. Great, he's trying to save his friend and all he manages to do is break a fake golden statue of Jesus. He wasn't really planning on cleaning it up, he had waaay more important business to do. But just as he was about to walk away from the mess to search the benches, he saw something strange.

Tyson stopped walking and stood looking at the shattered pieces…and the little piece of paper lying right in the middle of it all. Somehow, Tyson had the feeling that wasn't very normal and, seeing as he was desperate to find _any_thing, he walked over, crouched down, and unfolded the little thing.

It read:

**Front door.**

**Lift; -1.**

**First left**

**Left**

**Twice right**

**666.**

…Huh?

Was that it? Was that the big clue he was supposed to find? It seemed to make some sense, they were some sort of directions, probably leading to Kai. This thought alone seemed to make Tyson's heart a ton lighter, but…there is always that dreaded but, the 'front door' indicated that these were directions for inside a building…_what building!_ There were a ton of buildings in the nearby surroundings, which one was Kai in? And what if he wasn't nearby? And if that was the case, it wouldn't matter if they'd know because Ray would never make it in time. And if that was true then…then…

Tyson suddenly found his vision blurry and angrily dried his tears with his sleeve. They were going to make it damnit, they had to!

"_You found it. You've made it to level three. Why are you still waiting? Don't you want to save Kai, is that it. Is it all a bit too much for you, mh. I'd understand if it is. You can just stop anytime you know. Although that would make the game uninteresting, but if you don't care about you're little team-captain, then there is no negative outcome for you, right? Just take a breath-"_

"SHUT UP! I don't know who the HELL you think you are, but we are going to beat you're little game and save our friend! So BE QUIET!"

Tyson was seething. How DARE this guy say he didn't care. He was about to show him just how much he cared, by getting this stupid clue back to Ray and getting Kai back!

With new determination shining in his eyes Tyson turned around and sprinted out the doors with the little note held tightly in his hand. He checked his watch and saw it was 5 past 10. 1 hour and 55 minutes left…they were going to make it!

(scene change)

Letters…no numbers…hate mathematics, own place in alphabet…

.

.

.

And just HOW was _that _supposed to **help**!

"DAMNIT!"

Max hit the ground he was sitting on with his fist and fought back the tears that were creeping into his vision. He'd been trying to make sense of these stupid numbers for…for half an hour already, and nothing, absolutely _no-thing_ had come out of that. All he had now that he didn't have before was a headache, a bad mood and a depression sinking in…fast.

Fast…fast…fast, fast, fucking **fast**!

Everything could be described by it, except for his brain.

Ever since that stupid message had appeared on their computer time had been flying. And that was **not** a good thing. They needed as much time as they could get their hands on. And after that, the biggest problem had been that, even though time seemed to be going faster than they were used too, the four of them seemed to be going slower. And with every second, that difference just seemed to grow. And Max was scared that they wouldn't be able to catch up anymore. He was scared they weren't going to make it. And if they were late, that room…would fill up…and Kai…oh god.

Max felt tears roll down his cheeks and didn't even try to brush them away.

He looked at the numbers in front of him and felt utterly helpless even though he was one of the few who could save Kai. He could see Kai extremely clear now, as if he was standing right in front of him. Arms crossed and with a smirk on his face, but then something changed. The smirk changed into a smile, a real genuine smile and Kai extended his hand to help Max up. It had happened after Max and Tyson had gotten hyper and started blading in the garden, only for Max to be blown over by dragoon and fall into the fishpond. This was a memory Max loved, it was the first time he had ever seen Kai smile.

Max could see him now, standing in front of him, offering to help. It brought a small smile to his face. But then it vanished.

Kai was gone and Max could feel the fear grow inside his chest. If he couldn't figure this out, Kai would never be able to help him again. He'd never smile again. Or talk. Or do anything for that matter. He'd be gone…just gone…gone

Suddenly Max was mad. No, not just mad, he was enraged. He felt so furious that he forgot about everything else.

How DARE he! That stupid son-of-a-bitch, why the hell does he think he can just play with people's lives like this! Does he think he's God, does he think he can decide who dies and who doesn't! You can't toy with people, not like this, it's wrong in every way and just sick! And as soon as they had Kai back they'd find that guy and make him pay for _everything_ he had done!

Kai … Max somehow didn't cry out in rage but, as if in trance, sat down again and took the paper in his hand again.

'letters can be numbers, a specific place…that just means that there's an order to it. So, the order of the alphabet. Okay, right. So, letters are numbers, alphabetical order, 1-13 2-19 4-20 5-21 9-25…wait a minute!'

Max suddenly remembered something. Something he had made up when he had been way younger: his own language. And every letter of the alphabet had gotten its own number in accordance to the alphabetical order. In other words, A had been 1, B had been 2, C had been 3, and so on. Could it be…?

Max immediately tried it.

Alphabetical order, meaning, 1, 2, 4, 5, 9, 13, 19, 20, 21, 25

Letters are numbers, meaning, 1=a, 2=b, 4=d, 5=e, 9=i, 13=m, 19=s, 20=t, 21=u, 25=y

Max wrote down the letters separately; abdeimstuy.

Okaaay, that wasn't right. But, as Max noticed suddenly, there was a word, a word he knew very well, that could be made by using these ten letters…

.

.

.

…

* * *

Ooooooh, what could it be, what could it be? the first one to guess the word gets cookies!

xxx empire14


	5. Time is running out

Heellloooooooooooooo! I am so, so sorry for updating this late. But school is being a pain and I barely have time nor energy left to do anything besides homework. But, anyway, here's chapter 5, hope you enjoy!

P.S. Kyo gets cookies! *hands cookies to Kyo* And for all those others who knew the word, I'M PLANNING ON WRITING A SEQUEL! If you want me to, please let me know. I mean, it's fun to write but it's even more fun if someone actually reads and maybe even likes your insane babbling. So, let me know

* * *

'Beystadium'

Max just sat there looking a little dumbfounded until the realization of the fact that he had actually just solved it entered his tired mind. The biggest grin ever made its way to his face and he had never felt happier. And suddenly something clicked and Max just sat there gaping '…_while your friend is hidden right under your very noses…'_…SHIT! So THAT'S what he had meant. Right under our noses meant that he was keeping Kai in…in the beystadium, Holy fuck!

Max was up on his feet in record time and running before he had even given his legs the order to move. He had to hurry, it was a quarter past ten and he just had to make it!

He didn't even notice the text message he got saying;

'advanced to level 4'

(scene change)

Calm…just stay calm…you're okay…everything. Will. Be. Fine.

.

.

.

Ooooh HELL! Who the fuck am I trying to fool, myself! Well, fat chance of that ever happening!

Kai was swimming now, well…swimming as in keeping his head above the water. But, there was one stupid little factor that made that simple task extremely difficult.

Fear.

For one of the first times in the last ten years or so, Kai wished his parents were there. Wished his mother would hold him and make all the scary things go away. Because, right now, Kai. Was. Absolutely. Terrified.

He hadn't been able to breathe normally for the last hour or so and he had been _crying_ every now and then when the truth of the situation would hit him again.

'I'm going to die, oh fuck I'm going to die.'

Kai felt so scared and helpless, the two feelings he hated the most and now they were all that he could feel. He wanted his parents, oh god he **needed** his parents. He felt so alone and scared and wasn't used to it at all. He had pushed these feelings away for years, and now that they were back, he had no idea of how to handle them.

Why the hell did his parents have to die? Why did he have to have the fucked up grandfather? Why did he have to suffer his entire childhood…together with his friends? Why the hell? What did he do wrong to deserve a life like that! What had the others done wrong!

"**WHAT WAS THE BLOODY **_**REASON**_**!"**

Kai felt like screaming his lungs out since feelings and memories suddenly flooded his mind and heart. His childhood, all the suffering, humiliation, pain. His friends back at the abbey who all went through the same thing at the hands of Boris and _his_ grandfather.

The Bladebreakers who grudgingly accepted him but who had saved him every single time after that. The fact that he had never really told them how much that had meant to him, how much that had _changed _him. His parents…oh god his parents.

He missed them sooo much. When he thought about them, his heart felt crippled, it _hurt_. But, for once, he was relieved to feel that. For the first time in years, Kai felt like a human again. And suddenly, he could finally understand that he once was a hyper and happy four-year-old. He finally felt like…like Kai. For so long, his grandfather had told him how to act, how to think, who to _be_. For too long he had controlled him, told him to forget about bonds and feelings, told him they made him vulnerable. And maybe, in a way, they did. But, without those bonds, he wouldn't be alive right now.

Hn, alive. Kai nearly had to laugh at the irony of that. He'd be dead soon…

And with that thought Kai felt the tears begin to form again, he had never, _ever_ cried this much in his life, or felt this much for that matter. And that stupid thought brought a very small smile to his face. Yeah, he'd probably die. But he'd die knowing one thing, he'd die knowing that he had beaten his grandfather's control, he'd die being _him_. And even though that brought little peace of mind, it was the only good thing that had come out of all of this he had to cling onto.

(scene change)

Ray was pacing. And pacing. And then he started fidgeting, and sighing and after that he just couldn't take it anymore and he screamed out in frustration before he fell back onto the couch.

Kenny was staring at the floor, or at least that's what Ray thought he was doing as he couldn't really see his eyes. But, Kenny hadn't moved since Max and Tyson had left and all Ray seemed to be able to do _was_ move. He had started with bighting his nails and when they had been chewed off entirely, he had moved on to unwrapping and re-wrapping his hair. He had done that five times and then he had started pacing, done his hair again, more pacing, some fidgeting while sitting on the couch and all that had been repeated over and over again.

But now he was about at the end of his patience it was eleven o'clock, they only had one hour left. Ray was starting to have difficulty breathing because of all the tension that was starting to constrict his chest. His hands were shaking and worst-case scenarios had been flashing through his head. He could see by Kenny's light shaking that he wasn't doing any better.

'Tyson, Max…where are you guys?'

Ray put his head in his hands and fe-

'BANG'

"**I'M BACK!"**

Speak of the devil, and he shall show. Ray's head shot up and he immediately saw Max run into the living room. Max ran up to him and gave him a piece of paper while he himself sunk to his knees and tried to catch his breath. Ray noticed he looked absolutely exhausted. But for the moment all he could look at was the paper Max had given him.

It was decorated with numbers, arrows, crosses and a few letters. The most important part stood at the bottom, it read 'beystadium' and the word had been underlined heavily.

Ray felt his heart swell up as he connected the dots in his head.

"…you found it…you figured out where Kai is!"

At this exclamation Max looked up with a grin on his tired face and Kenny finally moved. Then Ray did something completely out of impulse, he hugged Max. He was just so happy he couldn't care less.

They sat there for a while after which the banging of the front door broke them up. Both of them were grinning now.

A completely out of breath Tyson came barging in and fell straight onto the floor afterwards. Ray stood up and walked over to him as Tyson pushed himself up into a sitting position. He extended his hand which also help a crumpled little paper and managed to gasp out.

"Di…rec…tions."

Ray read the thing in a flash and grinned like a little kid who had just gotten a chocolate bar.

"This should do the trick…hold on Kai, I'm coming."

That last part Ray said quietly to himself. He took a look at the time. Ten past eleven. He immediately sprinted out the door already picturing the quickest way to the beystadium.

Kenny had stood up and was now kneeling next to Tyson who was breathing heavily. He looked at the door and felt like going after Ray but didn't dare break any of the rules, not when they were so close to getting their friend back. He just stared at the open door longingly and with hope finally growing in his chest.

'Good luck Ray.'

(scene change)

Ray was pushing himself to go even faster. That guy had also called him and was keeping tabs on him but right now he didn't really care all that much, he just wanted to get to Kai as fast as possible. It was so frustrating that even though they now knew where he was, they couldn't do anything about the dire situation their friend was in. That room was still filling up and every second was valuable. There was no time to waste. But, of course, this is when Murphy's law decided to intervene.

"Ray!"

Ray was turned around by a hand on his shoulder and found himself staring into the face of Hiro.

.

.

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT! No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, this couldn't be happening. Ray was on a very time-limited schedule and this guy decides to show up _now_. He had to get rid of him, asap. But, he couldn't tell him what was going on. Right, improvise…now!

"Hé Hiro, nice to see you. I'm sorry, but I'm in kind of a hurry. I…I uh…I need to see Mr Dickenson about something extremely important. So I gotta go, Bye!"

"Ray!..."

But Ray didn't listen to him and had already been running at the end of his sentence. He quickly rounded the corner and stormed into the beystadium. Somehow the doors were already open. He had, of course, taken the front door as it was explained on the paper Tyson had given him. Speaking of which, he quickly took it out of his pocket and saw that he needed the lift next.

He glanced around and saw one on the far right, he ran towards it and pressed the button that said _-1_. He waited impatiently for it to stop one floor down, and immediately raced out when the doors finally opened. He followed the next direction, first left. It lead him to a dead end.

He stood there for a while before looking at the paper again…yeah, it had said _first left_. Ray placed a hesitant hand on the wall in front of him and felt shocked. Was everything going to be for nothing after all…no…please, please no.

Ray started shaking, he couldn't bear the thought of losing Kai. His captain, his teammate, the one person he felt safe with, the one person he could always go to for advice, who would be his rock in a tough spot…the one person he loved.

At that thought Ray's world seemed to freeze. …_Love? Was that the feeling he felt? Was that why he was feeling that if Kai…died, nothing would matter anymore? _

_._

_._

_._

The answer to that question opened up a whole new world. It was so simple and completely obvious.

Yes.

"Ray? What are you doing?"

Ray wanted to turn around to face Hiro. But before he got the change to, the wall he was, only now, leaning against moved inwards, like a door opening, making him fall flat on his face.

"Woa! Ray are you okay?"

Now Hiro was sitting next to him, but he wasn't paying attention. He could see the next left turn.

He scrambled up to his feet, completely ignoring Hiro's shouts and raced past the corner. No walls were blocking him anymore and he took the two right's he was supposed to.

He came face to face with a complete steel door.

.

.

.

He had done it…

.

.

He had actually done it…

Now, he just needed to get Kai o-

"_Hihi, you were so close. But no one can beat the clock. Say good-bye to your captain."_

Suddenly red lights were flashing throughout the hallway and in a flash Ray saw a number pad that was next to the door vanish behind a little steel cap.

The importance of this soon entered his mind. The numbers, 666, it was the code to open the door. But now…

"NO!"

Ray immediately started to try and peel the little cap off again, but it didn't work. He felt a hand on his shoulder and heard Hiro ask him what was wrong, but he shrugged him off.

He wasn't going to lose, Kai was in there and he was going to get him back. He _needed_ to get him back. Damnit he _loved Kai!_ He wasn't going to give up.

Ray immediately made his decision. He took a few paces backwards, ignored Hiro, and took out his beyblade. With a cry of rage he launched it at the door. He did this three times before the little cap finally cracked. He then used his hands to try and bend some of the loose thin steel, not caring that he was cutting his hands in the process. As soon as he could see the little button that said _6_, he pushed it three times.

After that, a few things happened quite quickly. First, the lights stopped flashing and any light whatsoever was turned off shrouding the both of them in complete darkness. Second, as Ray stepped back the hands that had been on his shoulders trying to stop him from running of again, let go. Third, he could hear a rushing sound coming from behind the door.

After some ten seconds of complete silence except for the slow 'whoosh' coming from behind the door…it opened.

(scene change)

It was hard to breath. Especially when you knew that you only had a few breaths left. Kai's forehead was now touching the ceiling, he only had a few centimeters left to breath in. The tears were once again falling silently and his breaths were fast and panicked. He was pushing against the ceiling as if trying to push it up, allowing him to breath, to _live_.

But the water was going up, and the ceiling wasn't budging.

Kai let out a cry of rage. This was **not** how he had wanted it to end. He didn't want things to end, period.

But, as the water engulfed his face and he took one final breath, it wasn't like he had any say in the matter. And as Kai slowly stopped moving he had to think of his friends, one in particular.

'_I guess I never get to tell him how I feel…about…him…'_

With that he released his final breath, taking in a big gulp of water afterwards. It burned his windpipe and made him instinctively cough, which only resulted in him 'breathing' in more water. And the last thing Kai saw before the dark spots in his vision overwhelmed him was the beautiful face of the one person he had fallen in love with, the one to make the first crack of many in his wall.

…_Ray…_

_

* * *

_

Sooooooooooooooooooooooo, what'd you think? Please review!

-xxx- empire14


End file.
